HERMEL, Lebanon: A woman who was found bleeding on the side of a Bekaa Valley highway was not raped but had been abandoned by an employer because of her illness, a security source said.

The 25-year-old Akkar native was bleeding profusely on the Lebanon-Syria highway in the northern Bekaa Valley when she was found by Internal Security Forces and taken by the Lebanese Red Cross to Al-Asi Hospital in Hermel for treatment.

Earlier in the day, sources said the woman had most likely been sexually assaulted by a group of men.

But a subsequent medical examination and questioning of the woman revealed that she was suffering from a severe infection and uterine bleeding, a security source told The Daily Star.

The source said that the woman was abandoned on the side of the road when her employer, who was taking her to the northern Bekaa Valley, realized her illness was grave.

The investigation revealed that she had been searching for work in the Beirut suburb of Ain al-Rummaneh before meeting a woman who said she would hire her and assist in her treatment.

The employer and her husband took the woman to the Bekaa Valley but abandoned her near the town of Ras Baalbek because she was bleeding profusely and vomiting as a result of her infection.